The Curse of the Commie Ninjas
The Curse of the Commie Ninjas refers to a series of strange and unlucky happenings that have befallen the Poliner rock band, the Commie Ninjas, dating back to just after an earlier incarnation of the band, Overbored, kicked out guitarist Phil Howell. While it is unclear whether this lineup change actually caused the curse to come into effect, Phil believes it did, and hates everyone for it. The Curse mostly manifests itself in cancelled shows, terrible set times, and equipment malfunctions. Due to the Commie Ninjas being offered a spot on MusicNL's stage at the ECMAs, it is generally understood that the Curse is currently either dead or dormant. This interpretation assumes that the curse has nothing to do with Nordic Runes. The end of Overbored After Phil was given his walking papers from Overbored, main songwriter Liam Peacock was hit with his first major long period of writers block, which lasted several months long. He broke it quickly enough to write two more songs, giving the band all the material they needed for their second album, Illegal To Be Human. Illegal To Be Human sessions The band settled down to record the album with producer John Sullivan in an abandoned space in a building Liam's parents owned in Carbonear. The day before the sessions began, Overbored drummer Aiden Dunne broke his hand in a skateboarding accident, leaving him able to play drums, but in a lot of pain and somewhat ineffective. The session began with John's computer refusing to work, and when it finally did, the first track recorded for the album was John cursing out his equipment. As the sessions wore on, pieces of equipment broke repeatedly, John's computer deciding for itself when it wanted to work at all, and all four members getting increasingly annoyed with their newfound inability to play their instruments. The group fashioned a sign out of cardboard with the title "God is against us," and wrote down everything that went wrong in the sessions. Post-production After the sessions, John Sullivan moved away to Ontario and spend several months waiting for his computer to be shipped to him. When his computer arrived, he mixed some of the album, before his computer caught on fire. This, understandably, caused some delays. Meanwhile, Overbored was falling into disrepair, as Liam was busy recording a solo album called Life In An Anthill, and the other three were playing in a side project called A Darker Shade Of Black. Liam later left the province to go to university, and the band died, still waiting for their album to come back mixed, and unaware that John's computer was dead as well. Much later on John sent his backup discs of the session tracks to Liam so he could mix them himself, but they wouldn't work on Liam's software. Beginning of the Commie Ninjas When Liam, Phil and Aiden reformed the old Shoulderblades, it was understood that it would be a silly side project, and given that Liam would rarely be in Newfoundland, would not be very active. But the band had way too much fun, and decided to add bass player Mitchel Ford, and create a serious band with a serious name, the Commie Ninjas. Their first show was at the second Laxipaloooza in Shearstown, and the band was given the first of many terrible set times, at the end of the night, when everyone in the audience was catching a ride home. The band were never told that they had to plug their instruments in before they started playing, and this also created a problem with their set. The formation of this band also coincided with a steep decline in the bayrock scene, as bands such as the Laxitives and Nice Guy Eddie soon called it quits. This resulted in a shortage of gigs for the Ninjas, especially giving the limited amount of vacation time the band was able to function during. Early St. John's shows Wanting to broaden their horizons, and not finding very many gig opportunities in the Carbonear area, the Commie Ninjas began looking for shows in St. John's. Their first show, which then-fan Sandra-Lee Elford organized for them, was at The Spur, a sketchy and now defunct downtown bar. The show, featuring 16,000 different emo kids with acoustic guitars, had the Commie Ninjas on second last, because the bar closed and kicked everyone out before the Ninjas ever made it onstage. Angry that they dragged their entire gear setup to St. John's for no reason, they crossed the street and rocked Vogue Furriers. The second Commie Ninjas show in St. John's was to be at Primers, with bayrock band Backseat Driver, among others. The Ninjas didn't even make it to this show, as approximately eighteen feet of snow fell that day. The third show, with Roundelay, was held on the same night as the Hey Rosetta! CD release party. Christa Cram showed up. That's it. The fourth show was at Primers, and was both uneventful and unattended. The fifth show in St. John's, featuring really old bayrock band The Frodis Caper, would be the first one that an audience showed up to. It was not without a touch of the curse, however, as the mysterious Mariners, booked to play that night, failed to show up, without sending any notice. This was the first time that Ichiro Suzuki was featured on a Commie Ninjas poster. The Exotic Narcotic show The last known appearance of the Curse came at a show the Ninjas played at Turner's Tavern in December of 2008. The Ninjas played after noise-rock band Exotic Narcotic, who spent half an hour setting up, an hour and a half playing, fed back and made noise during what seemed to be breaks between songs, and drove everyone out of the bar. Afterwords, live show guru Tiff Bradbury castigated the band over their choice of shows.